


sometimes i call your voicemail, just to hear you speak

by SmoshArrowverseFan



Category: We Are The Tigers - Allen
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, i also want everyone to be alive but that'll have to wait for another fic, i just want them to be friends :(, slight AU, wrote this while listening to move on on repeat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-07 22:10:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20471759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmoshArrowverseFan/pseuds/SmoshArrowverseFan
Summary: kate gets a call in the middle of the night.





	sometimes i call your voicemail, just to hear you speak

**Author's Note:**

> howdy folks! take this hastily written fic bc i really wanted to post some watt content. istg cheerleaders, murder, and women in theatre are my fucking JAM and watt hit all three. plus like every song on the soundtrack is a bop. hope u enjoy!
> 
> quick warning that i forgot to put in when i originally posted this- there is a "what if i'd died that night" line in here, soo if that's sensitive for u i'd recommend not reading. it's not intense or anything but it's better to be safeu kno? xo

At three am, a couple weeks after the cheer sleepover from hell, Kate was woken up by her phone buzzing on her nightstand. Or, she would’ve been woken up, if she’d actually been asleep. She’d mostly just been staring up at the ceiling for the past few hours. She twisted around to pick up her phone, baffled that someone was calling her this late.

She glanced at the screen. Annleigh. The two of them weren’t particularly close, but if she was calling in the middle of the night, it was probably important. Or not. It was Annleigh, Kate didn’t really know what was going on with her at any given time. She accepted the call.

“Hello?” She said, voice somewhat hoarse. There was a pause, and a sniffle. Kate frowned. “Annleigh?”

“…Shoot, I didn’t… I didn’t mean to call you,” Annleigh said, almost too quietly for Kate to hear her. She had clearly been crying.

“It’s… fine,” Kate frowned. She was about ready to hang up, but a voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Chess told her to keep talking, and she never had been able to deny Chess. “Uh, are you okay, though?”

“I’m fine,” Annleigh said unconvincingly. She was a really shitty liar. Kate sighed, settling back in her bed. It wasn’t like she was going to sleep anyway.

“Yeah, I kind of doubt that.”

“Shut up,” Ooh, lashing out. Kate was all too familiar with that tactic. Coming from Annleigh, it wasn't particularly intimidating.

“Who were you calling at three am anyway?” Kate asked.

Annleigh paused. “…I was calling Clark.”

Kate swallowed. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s…”

Annleigh sniffled. “I know it’s really stupid, I just… I keep thinking, maybe if I call enough, one time he’ll pick up. He never does. His voicemail is… we recorded it together, when he got his phone in freshman year. Listening to it makes me feel a little better for a minute, but then I just get sadder. Sometimes… sometimes I leave him messages, just- just in case.”

“That’s not stupid,” Kate shifted. “I call Chess sometimes. I get it.”

“Oh.” There was another pause. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“About what?”

“About... not about what happened, but about them. Clark, and Chess, and… Farrah,” Annleigh’s voice cracked as she said Farrah’s name. Kate opted not to draw attention to it.

“Okay. Uh, what about them?” She felt a hollow aching in her chest.

“I... you’d think you’d miss the big things about them, you know? But it’s the littlest things that really…” Annleigh trailed off. Kate swallowed the lump in her throat.

“Yeah. Chess always used to tease me because I was shorter than her. It was a little annoying at the time, but… shit, I miss that.”

“I remember,” Annleigh said softly. "She did it at practice sometimes, in front of everyone. You'd get annoyed at her, but she'd just laugh it off."

“And her laugh… I’d say and do the dumbest things to make her laugh. She had such a pretty laugh. You know, used to sing to me sometimes, too. Never in front of other people, just me. She was kinda shy about her singing voice, which I thought was crazy because she had a beautiful voice. It always made me feel good that she trusted me, though,” Kate realized she’d started crying.

“Clark and I… we got together in fifth grade, but we’d been friends since first.”

“Right. You guys were always close,” Kate said. Annleigh sniffed.

“Yeah. I… one time, this kid pushed me on the playground. I scraped my knees and started crying, and then before I knew it someone was helping me stand up. He didn’t even bother with the kid who'd pushed me, he just cared that… that I was okay, right then. He’s always been that way. So caring, and considerate, and…” She trailed off. Kate frowned.

“Annleigh?”

“…Sorry. I just… he and Farrah were together when they died. Do you really think that they…?”

“Clark really cared about you, and he was a good guy. I liked him, and I’m usually pretty critical of people. I really doubt he’d do something like that, especially to you. And Farrah… she was annoying and irresponsible, but I don’t think she’d do something like that either,” Kate said, and she meant it.

“Okay. Okay, you’re right,” Annleigh took in a sharp breath. “Shoot.”

“What?”

“Right before Farrah… you know. We had this… stupid fight. She broke my phone, and I got mad, because of course I did. And she got all… quiet, and said that she just… she just wanted to be a good sister,” The line went quiet.

“Annleigh?” Kate asked softly. Annleigh let out a muffled sob.

“S-sorry. It’s just… I told her that she wasn’t my sister,” Annleigh sniffed. “And then she got killed. And she probably died thinking that I- that I hated her, which isn’t true at all, but I really don’t think that she knew that because I didn’t tell her! And I just… I should’ve told her. I should've told her she was a good sister, and brought her back downstairs, and not let her out of my sight. But I didn't.”

Kate closed her eyes and breathed deeply, fiddling with the bracelet around her wrist to ground herself. Chess had given her that bracelet when they'd first become friends, and Kate had taken to messing with it when she was uncomfortable. She'd been feeling uncomfortable a lot, lately.

“Chess and I had a fight, too, right before... the last time I saw her. I… Farrah was right. She wasn’t… she wasn’t better, and I confronted her about it. I told her she was better than that, and she said she wasn’t. And she sounded so… fucking defeated. Resigned. And I couldn’t… I couldn’t handle that. I told that she’d had one person who believed in her, and then I left. And… shit, I keep wondering… what if I’d stayed?”

“Then you’d be dead too!” Annleigh said, almost incredulous. Kate sighed.

“Yeah. Sometimes… I think maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.”

Annleigh gasped. “Yes, it would be, Kate-”

“Maybe I’d rather not live in a world without Chess, Annleigh,” Kate had started crying again. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever stopped.

“Chess wouldn’t want you to-“

“It doesn’t matter what Chess wants, because she’s not fucking here, Annleigh!” Kate paused, breathing heavily. “She’s not here.”

Annleigh didn’t speak for a moment, and when she did, Kate could barely hear her. “What about what I want?”

“What?”

“I’m glad you’re here, Kate. Riley and Reese, I know they’re trying to be nice, but they don’t get it. Cairo doesn’t even try to be nice, but she's Cairo, so that's kind of expected. But… talking to you, it feels kind of good, in a... probably totally immoral way. You understand what it’s like. You get the- the emptiness, right? Like, my house is so quiet now, without Farrah blasting her stupid music just to annoy me. And Clark and I scheduled all of our classes together, but now there's just this empty seat next to me. You get that, and it's selfish, but if you weren't here, I'd really be all alone.”

Kate could feel her own heartbeat in her throat.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay. You're right. It would suck for you if I weren't around. I mean, who would you be talking to on the phone right now if I weren't here?" She felt the ghost of a smile playing on her lips.

“I don't know. Not Cairo, that's for sure,” Annleigh laughed wetly. “Can I… ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Cairo, she used to, like, get on your case a lot. About you and Chess, I mean. Your… feelings for her. Are you… was she…?” Annleigh trailed off. Kate sighed.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think… no, I know she was right. It was so stupid, but when I found her that night… that was when I knew for sure. I mean, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about the possibility of... it before, but when I saw her on that bench I just. I knew. Shitty timing, right?” She laughed humorlessly.

“I’m sorry.”

Kate shrugged. “Yeah, well, it’s not like you killed her.”

“Still. Um, if it makes you feel any better, Clark proposed to me that night,” Annleigh said. Kate frowned.

“Why would that make me feel better? That’s really sad, Annleigh. Shit.”

Annleigh sighed wistfully. “I thought we had so much time, you know?”

“Yeah,” Kate paused for a moment, before clearing her throat. “We, uh. We have history together, and physics. If you want, I’ll sit next to you tomorrow.”

“Really?”

“Uh. Yes?”

“Okay. Sure, then! I would save you a seat, but… you know. Not really necessary,” Annleigh said. Kate smiled. Oddly enough, she felt significantly better after having talked to Annleigh. She wasn't okay- far from it. She still had a lot of healing to do, and she already regretted pinning everything on Mattie, but for the first time, it felt like she was making progress.

“Alright. Are you okay to hang up now?” She asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think so,” Annleigh said, sounding determined. Kate smiled softly.

“Me too. See you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow.”

For the first time since before the sleepover, Kate had a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! hope u all enjoyed, comments and kudos are MUCH appreciated. have a lovely day <3


End file.
